The Edinburgh Tour GuideThe Torchlight Procession opens Edinburgh's Hogmanay on Tuesday 29 December 2026. Around 15,000 people carry wax torches from The Meadows through the Old Town behind massed pipes and drums and the Up Helly Aa' Jarl Squad from Shetland, finishing beneath the castle. Another 10,000 or so watch from the pavements, which costs nothing. Which of the two you do is the only real decision, and it is harder to cost than it ought to be, because the price on the listing and the price in the checkout are not the same number.
The listing says "Prices from £5.75" and nothing costs that. The cheapest thing in the booking flow is the £8.50 share ticket, and the system will not sell it to you without a torch in the basket. One person on their own pays £22.
Two people, one torch, is £30.50 rather than £44. That is the cheapest legitimate way in, it is £15.25 a head, and it is a step most people walk straight past because the checkout asks you to pick a lane before it will show it.
Watching is free and normal. The organisers count 10,000 spectators against 15,000 participants. The ticket buys a torch and a place inside the procession, not a view of it.
A torch, one person
£22.00
Second person sharing it
£8.50
Age rating
12+
What the checkout actually charges
The event page carries a summary panel that reads Prices from: £5.75
. Open the booking flow for 29 December and that number does not appear anywhere in it. There are two ticket types, one of them is sold out, and the cheapest item that exists cannot be bought on its own.
| In the booking flow | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Torch ticket | £22.00 | One torch and entry for the person carrying it. Of that, £2.00 is a charity donation and £1.50 is the booking fee. |
| Additional participant ticket | £8.50 | Entry without a torch, for a second person sharing one. Maximum one per torch. Includes £1.00 charity and £1.00 booking fee. |
| Premium torch ticket | Sold out | Pre-event entertainment in McEwan Hall, a torch, the Premium lane, a souvenir lanyard and a £5 donation. Showing as sold out on 29 October. |
| Watching from the route | Free | No ticket. The pavements along the route are public. |
Read in the booking flow at edwinterfest.com on 29 October 2026, for the 18:30 performance on 29 December. The prices for the share ticket only appear after a lane is selected.
The producer's own announcement of 8 October puts it as priced from £22 including torches, booking fees and charity donation
, which is the figure the till agrees with. If you have budgeted £5.75 a head from the listing, the number you will meet is nearly four times it.
One torch between two, and the £13.50 most couples miss
The rule the operator states twice, and which decides what an evening here costs, is that you must buy at least one torch for every two people. Read quickly, that sounds like a restriction. Read properly, it is a discount, because the second person in each pair does not need their own £22 torch. They need an £8.50 wristband.
| Your group | Cheapest valid booking | Total | Each |
|---|---|---|---|
| One person | 1 torch | £22.00 | £22.00 |
| Two people | 1 torch + 1 share ticket | £30.50 | £15.25 |
| Two people, a torch each | 2 torches | £44.00 | £22.00 |
| Four people | 2 torches + 2 share tickets | £61.00 | £15.25 |
A couple who each buy a torch pay £13.50 more than a couple who share one, for the same two places in the same procession. Whether that is worth it comes down to one question: are you both going to want to be holding something during a 45-minute walk, or is one of you going to be taking photographs anyway.
The step that catches people out
- You pick a lane before you pick numbers. Blue Lane collects torches at the East collection point, Pink Lane at the West, both at the Meadows end.
- Everyone on one booking walks in the same lane, and the system will not let you mix lanes within a single order. Friends booking separately should agree the lane first.
- The share ticket is invisible until a lane is chosen. That is the mechanical reason most people never see the £30.50 option.
- Premium was sold out on 29 October. If the McEwan Hall warm-up was the part you wanted, the Festival Club events there are sold separately from £27.50.
The 12+ rating, on an event filed under Family
The event listing gives the age rating as Ages 12+, with under-18s requiring adult supervision, and carries a separate warning that the procession and its warm-up are not recommended for children under the age of 12yrs
. The same listing files the event under Family. Both things are on the same page.
The operator's information page then gives a different supervision age, saying anyone under 16 must be accompanied at all times by an adult over 18. Two official pages, two answers. For planning purposes the stricter reading is the only safe one: treat it as 12+, and assume an adult has to be with anyone who is not clearly an adult themselves. Buggies are not permitted in the procession at all, which settles it for the youngest children regardless of what the rating says.
That matters more than it looks, because this is the night families are most often told to build a Hogmanay trip around. The two 31 December events are both 12+ as well, so a family with a nine-year-old is not short of one option that week. They are short of all of the headline ones.
Underground Vaults Walking Tour in Edinburgh Old Town
Not a Torchlight product and it does not pretend to be. It is sixty minutes indoors, it starts at 300 Lawnmarket which is on the procession route itself, and it takes ages 5 and up. Rated 4.70 across 9,597 reviews, the largest sample behind anything in this catalogue.
Watching it, which costs nothing
The ticket is not a view. It is a torch and a place in the column, and from inside the column what you can see is the people immediately around you. The spectacle that gets photographed, which is a line of fire pouring down a dark street, is a thing you see from the side. The organisers count about 10,000 spectators against 15,000 participants, so standing on the pavement is a normal way to do this rather than a way of dodging the fee.
The route, from the official map, runs in this order:
| Stage of the route | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| The Meadows, start venue | Where it assembles, with screens, food and drink stalls and the torch collection points. Busiest and slowest part of the night. |
| Middle Meadow Walk and George IV Bridge | A long straight climb. The first point where the column reads as a continuous line rather than a crowd. |
| The Royal Mile, past St Giles' | The postcard stretch, and the most crowded pavement on the route. Also the narrowest. |
| Johnston Terrace and Castle Terrace | The finish, beneath the castle rock. The terrace sits above the Grassmarket and looks back along what has already passed. |
Route taken from the official 2026 map, read on 29 October 2026. The map is published inside the ticket booking widget; the operator's own information page still says route maps are to be released.
Three things follow from that route. It is 1.5km and entirely standing, on roads, cobbles and public paths, with no seating anywhere. It uses the same climb that makes the Royal Mile harder work than its length suggests. And it ends at the castle at 21:00 on a Tuesday between Christmas and New Year, when most of the Old Town has already stopped serving food.
The timings, and what the 18:30 on the listing means
The listing shows 18:30 and a lot of people will read that as the time the procession moves. It is not. It is the time the warm-up starts in a field in late December.
| Time | What happens |
|---|---|
| Early afternoon | Torch collection opens. The operator recommends collecting early rather than queueing close to the start. |
| 18:30 | Pre-event entertainment begins at The Meadows: street theatre, fire performers and drummers. |
| 19:30 | The procession sets off. The route takes about 45 minutes. |
| 21:00 | Event finishes. |
Timings from the operator's Torchlight Procession information page, read on 29 October 2026.
So the gap between arriving at the advertised time and walking is an hour, outdoors, standing. Dress for that hour rather than for the 45-minute walk, because the walk will keep you warm and the wait will not. The torches are wax-based, lit by stewards only, and come with paper guards to catch the drips. The operator warns that wind blows wax onto clothing and suggests an iron and brown paper to get it out afterwards, which is a useful hint about what the night is actually like.
Before you book
- Two of you, one torch: £30.50. Two torches is £44 for the same two places.
- Pick the lane before anyone pays if you are booking in more than one order, because they cannot be mixed afterwards.
- Download the e-ticket in advance. The operator warns that mobile data is unreliable in the crowd, and the QR code has to be scanned to collect a torch.
- No buggies, no umbrellas, no alcohol, no glass, and nothing in a bag bigger than a sheet of A3.
- Do not wear anything delicate. Wax drips, and in wind it travels.
- Eat before 19:00. You finish at the castle at 21:00 on a Tuesday in the week when Edinburgh kitchens close early.
This is the first of the four Hogmanay nights, and the only one of them that puts you in the middle of the thing rather than behind a barrier. What the other three cost, what is free, and which tickets are already gone sits on the parent page. If you are in the city earlier in the month instead, the Christmas programme has its own set of prices that move between listing and checkout.
Quick answers
How much does the Edinburgh Torchlight Procession cost?
A torch ticket is £22.00, which includes a £2 charity donation and a £1.50 booking fee, and it covers entry for the person carrying it. A second person can share that torch with an additional participant ticket at £8.50, which includes a £1 donation and a £1 booking fee. You cannot buy the £8.50 ticket on its own: the booking system requires at least one torch ticket in the basket, and allows a maximum of one share ticket per torch. The Premium ticket, which added pre-event entertainment at McEwan Hall and a souvenir lanyard, was showing as sold out on 29 October 2026.
Why does the official page say prices from £5.75?
That figure appears in the summary panel on the event page, and nothing in the booking flow is sold at it. The cheapest item in the checkout is the £8.50 share ticket, which cannot be bought without a torch, so the real floor for one person arriving alone is £22. The producer’s own press release of 8 October 2026 gives the figure as "from £22 including torches, booking fees and charity donation", which is the number that matches the till. Open the booking flow before you budget.
Can you watch the Torchlight Procession for free?
Yes. The organisers count roughly 15,000 participants and 10,000 spectators, so watching is a normal way to do it rather than a loophole. The ticket buys you a torch and a place inside the procession itself, not a view of it. The route runs from The Meadows up George IV Bridge, along the Royal Mile past St Giles’ Cathedral, then west along Johnston Terrace and Castle Terrace to finish beneath the castle, and the pavements along it are public. What you give up by watching is the thing people actually remember, which is being inside the river of fire rather than beside it.
Is the Torchlight Procession suitable for children?
It is rated Ages 12+. The official page carries a warning that the procession and its warm-up are not recommended for children under 12, and that under-18s must be accompanied by an adult over 18. The event information page separately says anyone under 16 must be accompanied at all times by an adult over 18, so the two official pages do not agree on the supervision age and the stricter reading is the safe one. The event is still filed under Family in its own listing. Buggies are not permitted in the procession.
What time does the Torchlight Procession start?
The listing says 18:30 and the procession does not move until 19:30. Torch collection opens in the early afternoon, pre-event entertainment begins at The Meadows at 18:30, the procession sets off at 19:30 and takes about 45 minutes to walk the 1.5km route, and the event finishes at 21:00. If you arrive at 18:30 expecting to walk, you are standing outdoors in the Meadows in late December for an hour first.
What is the Blue Lane and the Pink Lane?
The checkout makes you pick one before it will sell you anything. Blue Lane torches are collected at the East collection point and Pink Lane torches at the West collection point, both at the Meadows end of the route. Everyone in a single booking walks in the same lane, and the system will not let you mix torch and participant tickets across lanes in one order. If you are meeting friends who booked separately, agree the lane before anyone pays.
What are you actually carrying on the Torchlight Procession?
A wax-based torch, which the operator describes as a big candle. Stewards light them before departure and participants are told not to light their own. Safety guards are supplied to catch dripping wax, and the operator warns that in wind the wax can blow onto clothing, so delicate fabrics are a bad idea. Torches are extinguished and disposed of at the finish, and there are extinguishing points along the route for anyone who wants to stop early.
About this guide
Written by Diego Fresno, Independent travel writer and researcher. Every price, time, age rating and rule on this page was read on 29 October 2026 from Edinburgh's Hogmanay and its producer Unique Assembly: the event listing, the four-step booking flow for the 29 December performance, the Torchlight Procession information page and the announcement of 8 October. The £22 torch, the £8.50 share ticket, the sold-out Premium and the Blue and Pink lane rule all come from the checkout itself rather than from the summary panel, which gives a figure of £5.75 that nothing in the flow is sold at. The route is taken from the official 2026 map. Deliberately not claimed: in which earlier years the procession did or did not run, what a torch cost in any previous season, how early you need to arrive on the pavement to get a view, whether Premium tickets will be released again, or the exact street corners of the East and West collection points, which the map pins and the operator has not described in words. Nobody from this site has walked this procession. Viator was searched twice for 29 December 2026 and sells no Torchlight product at all, so the answer this page gives you, which is that watching it costs nothing, earns us nothing either. Verified: August 2026. About the author →